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Location-Based ISONE Pollutant Intensity Analysis

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In addition to decarbonizing its energy supply and building more energy efficient facilities, Harvard’s Office for Sustainability (OFS) partners with faculty and students to envision and test new, innovative ideas and practices. In Spring 2016, OFS and its Campus Services partners in the Environmental Health and Safety and Energy and Facilities departments joined with Harvard Law School Environmental Law Clinic fellow and HLS alumnus Seth Hoedl to explore one such idea–the concept of shifting electricity consumption to times when the regional electric grid is less carbon intensive, thus resulting in lower emissions use.

Hoedl analyzed over 10 million data points from the historic emissions profile of New England’s regional electric grid (ISONE) and found that though the opportunity appeared to be not as significant as expected, shifting electricity use during less carbon intensive times could be a financially viable way to further reduce carbon emissions, especially as the grid continues to decarbonize.